Publications

Fertile Ground: State of Forest Carbon Finance 2017

Policymakers around the world recognize the potential for natural land area to combat climate change: a total of 97 countries mentioned specific plans to reduce emissions from deforestation or increase forest cover in their Paris Agreement commitments. As the international community and domestic lawmakers figure out how to meet their emissions reductions targets in a […]

The UK Modern Slavery Act and EU Timber Regulation

Synergies and Divergence

In recent years, international supply chains for many primary products have come under scrutiny due to increased demands from consumers or regulatory bodies to ensure no negative social or environmental impacts are associated with their production. The UK Modern Slavery Act (MSA), enacted in 2015, has created new requirements for all industrial sectors to ensure[…]

State of Biodiversity Mitigation 2017

Markets and Compensation for Global Infrastructure Development

Between 2015 and 2030, global spending on transportation networks, energy, utilities, and other essential infrastructure is expected to double. This infrastructure development is necessary to keep pace with growing populations, our current infrastructure’s depreciation, and the moral imperative to provide a basic modern standard of living for all people on this planet. However, this infrastructure […]

EnviroAtlas Use Cases

Assessing Ecosystem Markets Opportunities on Public and Private Lands: New Tools and Data for Decision-Making

WASHINGTON, DC (15 November 2017) — Since 2014, Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace has partnered with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Environmental Markets to expand access to tools and data on ecosystem market mechanisms in the United States. The partnership aims to support policy-makers, natural resource managers, […]

A Technical Primer for Quantifying the Benefits of Watershed Interventions: Forest Thinning Management

The China Mega City Water Fund (CMCWF), was formally launched in August 2015 by the city of Beijing in cooperation with the Beijing Forestry Society (BFS), China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), International Union for Conservation Nature (IUCN), and Forest Trends. The goal of the CMCWF is to identify, fund, and implement watershed […]

A Technical Primer on Quantifying Benefits of Watershed Interventions: Riparian Buffers

The China Mega City Water Fund (CMCWF), was formally launched in August 2015 by the city of Beijing in cooperation with the Beijing Forestry Society (BFS), China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), International Union for Conservation Nature (IUCN), and Forest Trends. The goal of the CMCWF is to identify, fund, and implement watershed […]

A Financial Strategy for the Production-Protection Compact in the Peruvian Amazon

The production-protection compact (PPC), proposed and outlined over the two previous papers in this series, can form a key element of Peru’s strategy to reduce deforestation, on the basis that environmentally sustainable and economically profitable agricultural production can be combined with increased forest conservation to enable sustainable development that improves livelihoods and environmental protection. A[…]

Regulating the Trade in Illegal Timber

Asian Approaches Compared - State of Play June 2017

Together, the US, EU28 and Australian markets, alongside the Asian countries now designing their own import controls, account for over 90% of global timber imports in 2016. Therefore, as the Asian demand-side regulations start to come into force, the global market incentive for companies trading in legal timber will be significant. Each country is at[…]

China’s Forest Product Imports and Exports 2006-2016

Trade Charts and Brief Analysis

As the world’s top importer and consumer of timber products, China is in a unique, and influential, position to take a leadership role to ensure that only legally and sustainably sourced timber – and other products sourced from forests – enters the country, thus helping to shift the global timber trade paradigm away from illegal[…]

Collaboration Toward Zero Deforestation

Aligning Corporate and National Commitments in Brazil and Indonesia

In this report, Environmental Defense Fund and Forest Trends examine case studies on corporate commitments, government policies, and multi-stakeholder initiatives that support Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in Brazil and Indonesia. The report analyzes how current initiatives align with NDCs and identifies ways to improve this alignment. The report concludes with specific recommendations to enhance collaboration[…]